Well said! That in the last 25 years we have gone from spending about 20-30% of our budget on food to less than 10% should set off alarms. You do in fact get what you pay for. I would only add that by becoming more conscious of your food choices you will also be consuming better tasting food. Thanks for the great post.

Hey Sarah,

Thanks as always. And the point, it seems, is our need to go back to the future. To reclaim the small-loop logic of holistic farm systems that suit the land and livestock (and the humans who choose to live humbly amidst it) not traditional market systems. If, and when, we bring expressions of such a holistic system to market, we must respect it as such. We must understand it as requiring our support. They cannot exist on the same playing field as big systems - it cannot be done. Perhaps we need to reframe the conversation by suggesting what folks are really paying for is the ability to usher in humanity over greed -- a steal at $10 a dozen for eggs. That folks are yet unwilling to see it that way is an example of how removed we have become from the way of natural systems. Natural and humane systems should not have to respond to the needs of the market rather the market should respond to them. Crazy idea I know but that is the truth. Keep pushing the natural world to respond to our desire for cheap and we will all soon live in the mono-cultural, genetically manipulated world of Frakenfoods -- heck we are almost there. And we certainly need to learn to cook more and eat less. A dozen eggs goes a long way if you are willing to get in the kitchen. But we are the brats of modernity - the pampered and entitled, believing cheap food, everywhere at anytime is akin with our American civil liberties. Our value systems have eroded over the decades as a result of market manipulation. I think it is safe to assume that as little as two generations ago folks understood the cycle and logic of the natural world with its bounty and limitations. They were not nearly so arrogant. But markets manipulate our value systems because they can; because few of us have ever seen what a truly sustainable farm systems looks like. I think it should be mandatory that every child graduating high school should spend a year on a farm - a sustainable farm. Only then will the next generation begin to knock themselves off the pedestal of privilege (and ignorance) which allows them to consider chicken McNuggets (and other cheap food stuff) a birthright.

So thanks again Sarah. And put me on the list when the girls are laying or the roosters need a pot.

I think just as people are trying to get off the electric grid with solar panels, we need to be getting off the industrialized food system grid and start growing our own food and being more self-sufficient. Just like we need to reduce our dependence on Big Oil companies for fuel, we need to reduce our reliance on corporations to ensure our food safety and also have the peace of mind where it came from!

I already pay $5 for eggs and $3.50/lb for chicken at the farmer’s market. I think my chicken farmer is raising Cornish Cross. I will have to tell him I would pay extra if he buys “straight run” chickens for his laying hens and raises the roosters for meat.

Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate the content of your article. I am a big advocate of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which is basically going back to the way our forefathers ate. I will continue to educate anyone I can on this concept, and I hope you will do the same.

Yes, I understand and agree. One question: Is the meat produced from small, independent farms subject to the the same government inspections and regulations as that from industrial farms? I know our inspection system is experiencing its share of problems these days, and a lot of the rules don’t make sense for small operations, but I’d want to know that there’s some kind of oversight in place.

Jean: well, yes and no. any meat that’s sold commercially (through farmer’s markets or stores) must be inspected and regulated. direct-to-consumer sales often don’t have the same rules. if I buy a chicken from my friend’s backyard, no: no inspection. in that case, though, I’ll be pretty intimate with the slaughtering process (I’ve been begging Chris, who’s linked in my piece, to let me come the next time she gets together with friends to harvest chickens!).

there are some slaughterhouses where you can take backyard chickens who start crowing to be killed and prepped; I believe these have to undergo the same inspections that any other meat processing plant would.

and thanks for all your thoughtful and passionate comments.

Thank you Sarah, for such a thoughtful piece. We buy as much as we are able from our small farmers market--I wish we could get cheese, grains and beans, as well as meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables. I am often dismayed by how very little the farmers charge for their labor/produce. Yesterday we bought 10-lbs of Concord grapes for $5; last week 2 cantaloupe and a watermelon set me back $4! I know how hot and backstraining it is to grow and harvest those things and prices like that make me feel I am cheating. I guess I will get my comeuppance when I hand over $50+ for my Thanksgiving turkey! I know I will remember the farmer when we are eating grape jam next winter.

Harriet, your comments are on the money, as usual. I love your idea of “farm service” for young adults--it would go a long way toward changing attitudes.

What a wonderful piece! I remain hopeful that your piece and Mr. Pollan’s op-ed in the NYTimes that observes: “Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future.” will spark the long-awaited national conversation on how we eat affects not only our personal health, but also the environment and our societal well-being.

There certainly is room for conscious meat-eaters and mindful vegans, but what will make the everyday eater want to be that knowledgeable about their food and what will help transcend that knowledge into everyday action? Your call to action is great start, but what’s next?

Anonymous,

Tangibly, it will take intention. It will take looking under the rock of traditional systems and articulating the “whys” of their existence and the why you still participate. It will require us moving away from the easy or easier process of simply buying green or sustainable (or words industry will quickly co-opt) and really thinking through the system of production, distribution and consumption -- every part of that system. It will take curiosity, anger and dismay at the inequity of the traditional system and a call to action within our own hearts and minds that will finally make us act - truly act. It will take a stepping down from the convenience those systems allow in ways we do not yet want to accept. Growing, harvesting and preserving your own food or supporting those who do will require work and time- lots of both. That is something we have yet to saddle up to. It is one thing to look cute at the farmer’s market with a basket of locally grown produce and another thing all together to put up the harvest in a way that will really support local agriculture. I’m not trying to knock baby steps but we are intelligent folks who can really decipher the end game of not responding to the issues at hand but do not always want to. How many books are out there on the matter? Lots. We are yet viewing the issues from the sidelines. We have yet to pick up the hoe (which might be the most concrete way to learn how stinking hard growing healthy organic food is). With most of us working “out there” to get our money to buy our food we are stuck in a system of our own outsourcing. I like to say we have become the new serfs, only fancier. Few of us can do for ourselves, few of us want to, few of us can afford to step down from the 9-5 to give the “life” the time it deserves.

So what tangible? Get serious, get real, work less out there and more in your own backyards (if you can at all afford to), read books, let what you read sink through, articulate the truth become the economic system we all exist in and then create alternative. Capture the modes of production -- become producers not solely consumers. Take “profit” (or profit born at the expense of humans, animals and natural resources) out of the system as best you can (the fewer intermediaries between you and your food the better). Don’t trust stupid labeling and packaging. Get a grip on your willingness to be dupped. Close the loop. Imagine yourselves as the future your kids deserve and stop buying them IPODS and get them a shovel.

Just some ideas.

The above content from Fasenfest just about says it all. It is not only a concept that should be taken seriously, but if we don’t, it is our own fault what comes our way. Believe me, it is not that hard to put up your own food. Learn about canning, preserving, fermenting, dehydrating. I own my own company and I still make time to do these things. Read up on what Alice Waters has to say or the Weston A. Price Foundation. Don’t bring your children up taking the easy way out. Did you know that Alice Waters was the catalyst for starting a class at an elementary school in Berkeley, California where the children can learn to grow their own food. Did you know that every child that was asked said it was their favorite class. Come on, even they know what is right!